A lethal 'non-lethal' weapon

With tear gas a prominent weapon used to repress the recent
uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East, the multi-billion global market has been expanding.
Reported incidents of tear gas-related deaths and injuries have prompted
critique of its classification as 'non-lethal' and renewed calls for a ban on
its use.

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Systematic 'misuse'

The use of tear gas as an indiscriminate crowd dispersal
weapon is nothing new. A Google
map created by Dr. Anna Feigenbaum,
a Lecturer in Media and Politics at Bournemouth University leading a research
project on the history of tear gas, lists over 75 locations across the world
where, since December 2012, tear gas has been used by police against large
crowds of protesters. From the Middle Eastern uprisings to anti-capitalist
protests in various European countries; from India to South Africa to Brazil:
scattered protesters gasping for air amid thick, white clouds has become a
familiar scene on news reports.

Although described by manufacturers and police as
'non-lethal' or 'less lethal', numerous cases from Palestine, Bahrain, Turkey
and elsewhere have shown that tear gas can cause serious injury, even death,
especially when used in large quantities, in closed spaces or fired directly at
people at close range and high velocity, rather than at a 45 degree angle and
from a 120 yard distance.

Many scientific studies have raised doubts about its
classification as 'non-lethal'. A famous study from
2000 on the use of CS gas by the FBI concluded that, if no gas masks
were used and people exposed to the gas were trapped in a closed space, “there
is a distinct possibility that this kind of CS exposure can significantly
contribute to or even cause lethal effects.”

Defenders of the technology – that is, manufacturers, police
forces and the academics and writers on their payroll – often argue that the
'tragedies' are simply a result of 'misuse', contrary to the manufacturers'
instructions. But the history of tear gas suggests that such weapons
are routinely 'misused' by police and security forces when mass protests 'get
out of control'.

Turkey: gases, tears and home-made masks

Tear gas features in many of the iconic images emerging from
Turkey's ongoing mass protests. From the woman in a
red dress being sprayed in the face with tear gas by a cop in
Istanbul to a dervish
wearing a gas mask doing a Sufi dance on the street and people
wearing funny-looking masks made of plastic bottles cut in half. The reason: in
the first 15 days of the protests, which began on 28 May, Turkish police fired
over 150,000 tear
gas canisters.

According to the Turkish Medical Association, which helped
organise many of the field clinics in Istanbul, over 12,000 people
required medical care in that same period after being exposed to CS
gas, CR gas, pepper spray and other types of tear gas. Hundreds were admitted
to hospital, though many others avoided going as police were following and
arresting people there. About 53 per cent of those treated said they had been
exposed to the toxic gases for between one and eight hours; 11 per cent for
more than 20 hours. Around 20 per cent of the injuries were open sores and
fractures to the head, face, eyes, thorax and abdomen, resulting from being struck
directly by tear gas canisters.

The use of tear gas by the Turkish police has been on such a
scale that one of the protesters'
five demands is: “Teargas bombs and other similar materials must be
prohibited.” Tara O'Grady, an expert on tear gas who has just returned from
Turkey, says:

"Tear gas has been used to suppress protesters and as a
form of collective punishment in Turkey over the last few weeks. The many
different types of gas that they are using means that there is no one common
response to the medical problems and complications. Some of them burn your
skin…your eyes, nose, ears, throat, and lungs, you are just really overwhelmed
with an almost convulsive reaction to it. People have suffered from
palpitations for days afterwards. People can't eat, they are vomiting blood,
urinating blood. The water cannons they are using also have some form of
chemical in them, with a similar effect to the tear gas canisters. And this is
indiscriminate. There are children who are suffering with this."

While the dramatic use of tear gas in Turkey has gripped
international attention, it is by no means a unique case.

Bahrain: tear gas as a weapon of mass repression

Since the early 1990s, Bahrain has hosted an important US
military naval base. Currently being upgraded, it was instrumental in the
Second Gulf War, the invasion of Iraq and other US adventures in the region.
The tiny island in the Arabian (or Persian) Gulf also provides easy access to
the Indian Ocean and is a stone's throw away from Iran. Its vast reserves of
natural gas, aluminium and other natural resources entrench its position as a
'strategic ally' of the US and Saudi Arabia in the region.

This may partly explain why the Bahraini uprising, which
started in February 2011, has received relatively little attention in both Arab
and Western mainstream media compared to other uprisings in the region.
Al-Jazeera is a case in point.

Yet the level of repression there has not been less than
that seen in other neighbouring countries, save for Libya and Syria, perhaps,
where the popular revolutions were quickly militarised. The heavy use of
US-manufactured tear gas has been instrumental in enabling this repression to
continue.

Bahraini – and Saudi – police and security forces have been systematically
using tear gas against the popular protests on an unprecedented scale.
Countless reports, pictures and videos posted on the internet show riot police
firing volleys of tear gas at crowds, sometimes at close range, as well as into
people's homes and vehicles (see, for example, the 2013 documentary 'Bahrain: The Clouds of Death').
The use of tear gas has been so widespread and excessive that people are reportedly
“shoving wet towels under the doors and the nooks and crannies of windows and
ventilators to stop tear gas from entering.”

In their 2012 report 'Weaponizing
Tear Gas', Physicians for Human Rights documented tens of cases of
“maiming, blinding, and even killing of civilian protesters” in Bahrain as a
result of tear gas attacks. Based on witness statements, medical records and
forensic evidence, the report describes repeated instances of miscarriage and
grievous wounds suffered by civilians who had been exposed to tear gas or
struck directly by canisters fired from a few feet away. An earlier report
documented 34 tear gas
related deaths, including women and children. That is approximately one in every three deaths
since the Bahraini uprising began.

“The unprecedented use of tear
gas in Bahrain proves that it is a lethal chemical weapon,” says John Horne
from Bahrain Watch, an
activist group that has been documenting the Bahraini regime's use of arms
against protesters. “Large parts of the population have had to suffer
collective punishment through the excessive, indiscriminate use of tear gas fired
into residential areas. Individuals have also been directly targeted and killed
from the blunt trauma of metallic canisters shot at high velocity. The security
forces are operating far beyond the boundaries of existing international
frameworks and even the manufactures own guidelines.”

Egypt: still a major importer of tear gas

Shortly after the Egyptian revolution broke out in
January 2011, the US State Department approved a number of export licenses
for the shipment of US-manufactured crowd control weapons, including tear gas,
to Egypt. According to Amnesty
International, one US company shipped 21 tons of tear gas grenades
and canisters – enough for 40,000 rounds – in addition to a separate shipment
of 17.9 tons. At least three people are known to have died in Cairo's Tahrir
Square from tear gas
inhalation. Many cases of unconsciousness and epileptic-like
convulsions were also reported.

Ironically, earlier this year, well after the fall of
Egypt's former dictator Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian Interior Ministry
reportedly ordered 140,000 tear
gas canisters from the US, worth USD 2.5 million. To understand this
apparent irony, one must understand how the Egyptian revolution was co-opted –
or 'hijacked', as an increasing number of Egyptians put it – by the Muslim
Brothers leadership, as well as Egypt's strategic
importance to the US.

The US continues to give Egypt some $2 billion a year in
'aid', making it the second-largest recipient of US money after Israel. Most of
this goes to the
military and security forces. The price is 'peace' with Israel and
privileged US military access to the Suez Canal and Egyptian airspace.

Another place in the region where tear gas is heavily used
is the Occupied Palestinian Territories, where the Israeli military
routinely uses different types of tear gas against Palestinian demonstrators. The
West Bank and Gaza have been described as a “testing ground” for the global
security industry, where the strength of gas used varies and evidence suggests that
gas with a higher propensity to incapacitate has been used (for more on
this, see this
Corporate Watch article).

A growing market

The North African and Middle Eastern uprisings and
revolutions over the past two and a half years have certainly contributed to a
new boom in the global tear gas market. According to industry sources, the
Middle East's internal state security market grew 18 per
cent in 2012, reaching an estimated value of USD 5.8 billion.

Soon after the start of their revolution, Egyptian
protesters and bloggers were posting pictures of tear gas
canisters recovered from the streets of Cairo bearing the name of Combined
Systems International (CSI) or 'Made in USA'. Other cartridges carried
the markings of Defense Technology/Federal Laboratories (part of British arms
and aerospace giant BAE Systems) and British defence contractor Chemring
Defence (formerly known as PW Defence). Similar CSI canisters – a few inches
long, blue and silver – had been found on Tunisia's streets during the first
weeks of its own revolution the month before. Other Western-manufactured tear
gas canisters and grenades have also been found in Syria.

Tear gas canisters and grenades recovered from the streets of Bahrain
suggest that most came from the US, bearing the names of NonLethal Technologies
and Defense Technology/Federal Laboratories. Other canisters spotted in Bahrain
belonged to France's SAE Alsetex and Brazil's Condor Non-Lethal Technologies
(which have recently also been used against anti-World Cup protesters in
Brazil).

The US has now withheld licenses for tear gas exports to
Bahrain, which means American tear gas still being used by the Bahraini
authorities may have been stockpiled from before or obtained through a third
country such as Saudi Arabia. The Brazilian government denies
that any Brazilian tear gas has been directly sold to Bahrain, suggesting it
may have been imported from another Gulf country, most probably the United Arab
Emirates.

According to Bahrain Watch, security forces have recently
started using unmarked tear gas canisters that release yellow smoke. This is
presumably to obscure the manufacturer and country of origin, following the bad
publicity that these have received. However, the group says
the canisters “of unknown origin” appear to be manufactured by German/South
African company Rheinmetall Denel Munitions, while the unmarked canisters are
“almost certainly” from Korean company CNO Tech, which is known to have
supplied “non-lethal arms” to Bahrain.

Most tear gas canisters and grenades recovered from Gezi
Park, the streets of Istanbul and other Turkish cities where mass
demonstrations have been taking place were also made by three US companies:
NonLethal Technologies, Defense Technology and Combined Tactical Systems, as
well as the Brazilian company Condor Non-Lethal Technologies. According to media reports,
between 2000 and 2012 Turkey imported 628 tons of tear gas and pepper spray,
worth USD 21 million, mainly from the US and Brazil.

Facing tear gas

Many observers are now calling for a total ban on the use of
tear gas against demonstrators due to its lethal consequences, disputing claims
by manufacturers and police forces that it is a benign 'non-lethal' or 'less
lethal' crowd control method. The rhetoric asserting tear gas as 'non-lethal'
(except when 'misused') operates within the reality of tear gas as a profitable
commodity, manufactured and traded with state complicity, in the context of systematic
state repression trying to stifle growing popular resentment and anger.

The misuse, or actual use, of tear gas in Bahrain and Turkey
has prompted three members of the US Congress to propose new legislation on
tear gas and other crowd control weapons “used to violate the human rights of
protesters.” Other new initiatives include the Facing Tear Gas project. Spearheaded by
the War Resisters League, the campaign brings together activists and
organisations from across the US, Bahrain, Egypt, Greece, Canada, Chile and
Palestine to “form a global initiative to ban tear gas.” These calls echo many
others made over the years, for example 25 years ago when tear gas was used
indiscriminately in South Korea against civilian protesters.

The use of tear gases such as CS gas in war is prohibited
under the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, but is permitted for use against
civilians. The reasoning behind the prohibition is that it may trigger
retaliation by the opponent with more toxic chemical weapons. Only five
countries in the world have not signed the Convention, including Angola, Egypt,
North Korea, Somalia and Syria. Under the UK Firearm Law, CS and other
incapacitating sprays are classed as 'prohibited weapons', making it unlawful
for a member of the public to possess them.

Demonstrators worldwide continue to invent novel ways to
face tear gas and confront its intended use of making protest physically
impossible. From drenching the canisters in sand, wrapping them in wet towels,
or placing them in pre-prepared water
butts, to home-made gas masks using plastic bottles and treatment with lemon,vinegar,
soda and other widely available substances. People know that tear
gas kills. Despite the 'clouds of death' they still take to the streets.